And here I’ve gone close onto 40 years without a significantly negative interaction with the police.
Some people can still say that. Should you wait for it to happen to you or yours before you speak up?
They came for the scientists and I was silent because I was not a scientist.
They came for the journalists and I was silent because I was not a journalist.
65 years here!
Neither have I, but not everyone is so lucky:
58 for me. But I know it’s not the same for everyone. I used to think that it was a regional thing, that a city or state or part of the country, say New Orleans or Tacoma WA has problems until they make a concerted effort to clean themselves up and in Tacomas case, the fish was rotting from the head.
I’ve been lucky enough to live in places where law enforcement is pretty clean, and pretty competent. I was raped in a small Rocky Mountain city in 1990(if I had had a weapon it would have turned out a lot differently but that’s another story) Police and firefighters there had a reputation for being partiers and not taking life too seriously. But of course I had to call. And I was very much in favor of prosecuting the guy. These city cops were wonderful—professional, enlightened, respectful, compassionate. I was so proud of them. In the emergency room one told me “you know only 5% of these guys go to prison”. I understand that be was preparing me for the worst. But the guy did get convicted and sentenced to 60 years. It turns out that he was a career criminal and they were already aware of him. I don’t really know the point of this story, except that people can surprise you. And think about carrying a weapon.